FCUP | One Research Grant – Master’s Degree - Scope.Ai (B2)

Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto

Organisation/Company Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto Research Field Biological sciences » Other Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Master Positions Country Portugal Application Deadline 5 Dec 2025 - 23:59 (Europe/Lisbon) Type of Contract Not Applicable Job Status Not Applicable Offer Starting Date 1 Jan 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Reference Number Scope. Ai Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Call open for applications for 1 research grant (Master’s Degree), enrolled in Ph
D in Bioinformatics, Applied Mathematics, Biology, Food Science and Technology, Food Engineering, Agrarian Sciences or similar areas or in a course not conferring an academic degree, within the framework of project Scope. ai, with the reference COMPETE2030-FEDER-02198400, financed by COMPETE 2030 by the Innovation and Digital Transition Program, under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Biology / Food Sciences /Bioinformatics/Applied Mathematics

Admission requirements:

• To have a Master’s degree in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Biology, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Applied Mathematics or similar areas;
• To be enrolled in Ph
  D in Bioinformatics, Applied Mathematics, Biology, Food Science and Technology, Food Engineering, Agrarian Sciences or similar areas or courses that do not confer an academic degree.

Although the recipients must be enrolled in a cycle of studies leading to the attribution of an academic degree or in a course not conferring an academic degree, at the time of application it is not necessary for the candidate to have made such an enrollment, and proof of enrollment must be presented until the fellowship is contractualized. Candidates are only required to meet the requirements to enroll in the training offer. If there are candidates already enrolled (including attending a course), they compete on an equal footing with those who are not enrolled.

Note: In the case of masters who are enrolled in courses that do not confer academic degree, the research grant can only be awarded to those who do not exceed, with the signing of the research grant contract in question, including possible renewals, an accumulated period of two years in this type of grant, consecutive or interpolated.

Preferences Requirements:Highly motivated candidate with demonstrated experience in NGS pipelines and bioinformatic data analysis, combined with a solid understanding of molecular biology and basic
- lab techniques. Experience in implementing and running pipelines in Unix/Linux environments, as well as proficiency in scripting and data analysis using R or Python, will be considered an asset.

Hiring Requirements: If the qualification has been granted by a foreign higher education institution, it will have to be recognized by a Portuguese higher education institution, pursuant to article 25 of Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of 16 August, which approves the regime legal recognition of academic degrees and diplomas in Higher Education, arising from foreign higher education institutions, and paragraph e) of paragraph 2 of article 4 of Decree-Law No. 60/2018, of August 3, all of which the formalities must be fulfilled there until the contracting act.

Activity Outline: Monitoring and support for the experimental implementation of activities associated with
- task T3. 4, namely:Task 1. DNA extraction and quality control: Perform the extraction of
- quality genomic DNA from saliva samples collected from around 200 samples. Prepare aliquots for downstream analyses, including exome sequencing and metagenomic profiling. Task 2. Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) data processing and variant analysis. Implement standard pipelines for exome data analysis, including quality control (Fast
QC), trimming, alignment (BWA-MEM), duplicate removal, variant calling (GATK), and annotation. Generate a catalogue of genomic variants associated with genes potentially involved in taste perception, olfactory receptors, and sensorial pathways. Task 3. Oral microbiome profiling (16S r
RNA and ITS sequencing) Process the oral cavity metagenomic data obtained through 16S r
RNA and ITS sequencing. Perform quality filtering, chimaera removal, and taxonomic assignment using bioinformatic tools such as QIIME2 or DADA2. Characterize bacterial and fungal community diversity and structure across individuals and sensorial groups. Task 4. Multi-level integrative analysis: Integrate genomic (WES) and microbiome datasets to identify correlations between host genetic variants and microbial composition. Apply multivariate and
- based approaches to explore potential host–microbiome interactions associated with sensorial traits, including taste acuity and dietary preferences. Task 5. Genome-wide association analyses (GWAS) to identify genomic variants associated with sensorial phenotypes and microbial profiles.

Legislation and regulations: Law no. 40/2004, updated by Decree-Law no. 123/2019, of 28 August (Statute of Scientific Research Grant Holder); Regulation no. 950/2019 of 16 December (Regulation of Research Grants of the Foundation for Science and Technology); Regulation no. 184/2021, of 3 March (Regulation of Research Grants of the University of Porto) and Decree-Law no. 66/2018 of 16 August (Legal Regime of Recognition of academic degrees and diplomas of Higher Education awarded by Foreign Higher Education Institutions).

Work place: The work will be developed in the Department of Geosciences, Environment and Planning, Green
UPorto – Research Centre for Sustainable Agri-Food Production (www.fc. up. pt/greenuporto ), and CIBIO-BIOPOLIS ( www.cibio. up. pt ; www.biopolis. pt ) located at Vairão campus , with the possibility of having to develop some of the experimental work at the facilities of the project partners , Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP), under the guidance of Prof. Doutor Albano Beja Pereira

Grant duration:Initial duration of 12 months, with beginning on 01/01/2026, eventually renewable up, but not exceeding the end date of the project. (31/08/2028)

Maintenance allowance amount: The grant stipend amounts to1309, 64€ according to the table of values of the grants awarded directly by FCT, I. P. in the Country (https://www.fct. pt/apoios/bolsas/valores ). The payment will be made by bank transfer.

Voluntary Social Insurance:As long as the grant lasts 6 months or more, and in compliance with the provisions of the current version of the Grant Holder Statute, the grant holder will be entitled to have FCUP support the costs resulting from the contributions that fall into the first of the tax brackets. The grant holder will be responsible for contributions beyond the first tax bracket, should the grant holder opt for a higher coverage.

Personal Accident Insurance:During the grant period, the grant holder will be covered by a personal accident insurance policy.

Selection procedure:The selection methods to be used are as follows:

Z:Previous Experience - 50%.

The candidate classification (CF) will be obtained using the following formula:

CF=AC*45% +Y*5% + 50*x%

An Interview will be held with the 3
- ranked candidates. It will weigh 10% and CF will be translated into the following formula:

CF=AC*90%+I*10%

The candidate who has a foreign academic degree or diploma whose final classification is expressed on a different classification scale from the Portuguese one or does not have a classification, for evaluation purposes, must present a document proving the recognition of the foreign degree or diploma and the conversion of the classification for the Portuguese classification scale until the closing date of applications for the competition.

If the documents attesting the degree submitted by the candidates do not present the final classification of the degree required in this notice with the respective grade converted to the Portuguese classification scale, the jury will consider, for evaluation purposes, that the candidate has the minimum classification (10 points) of a maximum of 20 points) required to obtain a degree in Portugal.

Candidates whose application has been assessed with a final classification of less than 14/20 points are not eligible to sign the contract of the fellowship.

Advertisement of final decision: The final results of the evaluation will be published through a list ordered by final classification, sent to candidates by email. It is further informed that, pursuant to the provisions of articles 121 et seq. of the Code of Administrative Procedure, it has a legal period of 10 working days from the day immediately following the notification, to make a decision, if it so wishes. A complaint may be filed against this decision within 15 working days or, alternatively, an appeal may be filed within 30 working days, addressed to the Director of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, pursuant to article 191 et seq. of the Code of Administrative Procedure. The host entity may use the final ranking list to replace the selected grantee in case he/she gives up the position, up to one year.

Deadline for applications and form of presentation of the applications The deadline for submitting applications will 10 days from the date of publication of the Research Grant Announcement. Applications must be formalized, mandatorily, through the web page of Infociências of this opening ( https://info. fc. up. pt/fcup/pedidos/users/novo. php? f_id=1291&formulario=715 ) accompanied by the following documents:

b) Detailed Curriculum Vitae;

c) Certificate of academic qualifications;

d) Declaration of eligibility (in attached);

e) Other relevant documents;

f) Up to three letters of recommendation, one is mandatory. The candidate should access to the link: https://info. fc. up. pt/fcup/recursos_humanos/cartas_recomendacao/index. p… , where he/she has to select the recruitment is applying, identify his/her name, email, identification number (citizen card or passport), and subsequently indicate the name(s), email address(es) of the persons that will write the recommendation letter. These persons will be notified by email, where a link will be sent to make the upload of the letter, by the end of the last day of application, 23:59 h - mainland Portugal time. The candidates will be notified when the letter has been submitted.

The documents indicated in points a) to e) must be submitted in a single file in zip format on the tender page.

Supporting documents for the contract: At the time of signing the contract, the grant holder must provide the following documents:

• Biographic form;
• Photocopy of Passport and/or residency permit (if applicable);
• Photocopy of Portuguese IBAN/NIB;

proof of enrolment in Ph
D in Bioinformatics, Applied Mathematics, Biology, Food Science and Technology, Food Engineering, Agrarian Sciences or similar areas;

or

proof of
- degree course; Proof document or statement duly signed by the institution's highest body that the course is provided for in the respective educational project and that it is developed in association or cooperation with at least one R&D unit (indicate which one(s) specifically); and Statutes of the entities that develop the course together with the higher education institution, in order to verify if they are considered R&D units, for the purposes of the provisions of article 16 of Decree-Law No. 63/2019, of May 16th;

• Foreign academic degree recognition (if applicable);
• Exclusivity declaration;

Commitment

In compliance with paragraph h) of Article 9 of the Constitution, the University of Porto, as an employer, actively promotes a policy of equal opportunities between men and women in access to employment and professional advancement, scrupulously avoiding any form of discrimination. In this spirit, terms such as “candidate, ” “author, ” or “teacher, ” among others that refer to the people who apply for this recruitment tender are used as gender neutral.

In addition, no candidate may be privileged, benefited, impaired or deprived of any right or exempt from any duty on grounds of ancestry, age, sexual orientation, marital status, family situation, economic situation, education, origin or social status, genetic heritage, reduced working capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological convictions and trade union membership.

The call is open from 21/11/2025 to 05/12/2025.

Number of offers available 1 Company/Institute Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto Country Portugal Geofield